s ill-fated 1968 reform programme, died after a car crash in late 1992, just before the break-up of the Czechoslovak Federation. Since Dubcek was by far the most prominent Slovak political figure on the international stage, rumours have persisted that rivals for power in the soon to be independent Slovak Republic were behind his death. The KGB has also been mentioned as a candidate in light of Dubcek‘s intention to appear before a Moscow commission investigating the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. However, a court found Dubcek‘s driver guilty of negligence and the case was formally closed. The Social Democrat Party, which Dubcek once headed, told Reuters it had lodged an official request for a re-opening of the case which it said had never been thoroughly investigated. „Some issues that we think influenced the accident have not been investigated,“ a party spokeswoman said. Slovakia‘s SITA news agency reported the current chairman of the party as saying that the Interior Ministry would set up a team to look into the affair. The ministry would not comment. The Social Democrat spokeswoman did not say whether any new evidence had come to light. Among other alleged discrepancies, Dubcek is said to have been found several metres in front of the car despite being thrown through its back window. The high speed car crash occurred in heavy rain on a stretch of motorway in the southern part of what is now the Czech Republic. Dubcek, after being initially kidnapped at gunpoint and flown to Moscow during the 1968 invasion, was forced to work as a forestry commissioner in Bratislava where he was kept under constant secret police surveillance. After the 1989 revolution against communist rule, he became chairman of the federal assembly. He opposed the break-up of Czechoslovakia. The crash happened on September 1, 1992, the day the Slovak parliament passed the country‘s first independent constitution — a point which has not being missed by the many conspiracy theorists of his death.